Since the highest level of sports I played was high school, so maybe this is at that level, but what I would do if I were Dan Bylsma is have highlights from the brawl fest playing in the room after each practice. And I'd ask Mr. Lemieux to stop by and just re-iterate the pain of last year's loss, and the '93 loss, too.

Men like Morrow and Iginla are now on this team, and they are apparently hungry for the Cup.

Crankshaft adds a much needed element of physicality to a blueline that has gotten a tad soft over the past 4 years. Bringing back Eaton also brings in a steady if not flashy role as well.

I don't expect Sidney Crosby to have forgotten last year's disaster. I don't believe he is a vocal leader, but I think he will pay close attention to the mood of this squad as the series wears on. Brooks Orpik plays a role here too, I think.

Play responsible, defense-first hockey the way they did over the 7 game win streak.

Serious business, boys. You're out of your early twenties, for the most part. You've won a Cup. Now it's time to settle down, bear down, focus for 2.5 months and become legends.

Guinness wrote:Since the highest level of sports I played was high school, so maybe this is at that level, but what I would do if I were Dan Bylsma is have highlights from the brawl fest playing in the room after each practice. And I'd ask Mr. Lemieux to stop by and just re-iterate the pain of last year's loss, and the '93 loss, too.

Men like Morrow and Iginla are now on this team, and they are apparently hungry for the Cup.

Crankshaft adds a much needed element of physicality to a blueline that has gotten a tad soft over the past 4 years. Bringing back Eaton also brings in a steady if not flashy role as well.

I don't expect Sidney Crosby to have forgotten last year's disaster. I don't believe he is a vocal leader, but I think he will pay close attention to the mood of this squad as the series wears on. Brooks Orpik plays a role here too, I think.

Play responsible, defense-first hockey the way they did over the 7 game win streak.

Serious business, boys. You're out of your early twenties, for the most part. You've won a Cup. Now it's time to settle down, bear down, focus for 2.5 months and become legends.

Let's GO PENS!

I think they're veterans who have had a very workman like attitude about them......... I don't think they need any extra motivation for the playoffs

Good grief! That debacle was a lot more dreadful than I recalled. If the Islanders pull off a 4th gruesome upset of the Pens, it will absolutely ruin the summer for all of us Pens fans.

By the way, Mark Madden believes in the Islanders jinx, but he thinks the Pens will break it this time. His tweet: “No Volek. No Tonelli. No Resch. No problem. Pens in 5. The Islanders jinx gets buried under the crumbling decay of Nassau Coliseum.”

The thought process of the Islander trying to mimic the flyers game plan scares me a little. Get our guys to take stupid penalties and we got guys who are stupid enought to take them. Iginla and Morrow have to be the voices of reason we didn't have last year. But there is one guy i hate most of all for the Islanders..

As for the Isles playoff history, the '93 Volek goal was heartbreaking. The classic reminder that no matter how good your team is, upsets are real and happen in hockey.

The lesson is clear. Make enough slip ups in the wrong places and take a team lightly and you can get to a point where a lucky shot kills you. And that's exactly what happened to the 1993 Penguins. They were distracted by the very large amount of off-ice BS, they didn't fear the Islanders, they believed they could flip things on and off like a switch, and they paid the price.

I was depressed for weeks. I could hardly watch any of the playoffs after that. I knew the eventual Stanley Cup winners, the Canadiens, would have been chum in the water for this Pens team.

I hope this team annihilates the Islanders in 4 massively agonizing, embarrassing games to watch (for Islander fans- all 3 of them).

bringitonhome wrote:Other than 93(I was 13) and the stupid brawl game, I'm finding it hard to hate the Islanders as much as I normally hate our playoff opponents. Can anyone help me?

Yeah. Never forget that punk Jack Capuano orchestrated the brawl.

That embarrassing farce, and the fact that slob didn't receive any kind of disciplinary action, is reason enough to want to see these little two-bit nobodies ground into powder in 4 games, sent home embarrassed to show their faces to their mothers.

Those idiots considered that game to be their little "coming out party". I'm all for seeing PGH welcome them to the show, in grand fashion.

bringitonhome wrote:Other than 93(I was 13) and the stupid brawl game, I'm finding it hard to hate the Islanders as much as I normally hate our playoff opponents. Can anyone help me?

Yeah. Never forget that punk Jack Capuano orchestrated the brawl.

That embarrassing farce, and the fact that slob didn't receive any kind of disciplinary action, is reason enough to want to see these little two-bit nobodies ground into powder in 4 games, sent home embarrassed to show their faces to their mothers.

Those idiots considered that game to be their little "coming out party". I'm all for seeing PGH welcome them to the show, in grand fashion.